Farms and orchards that continue to use three pesticides that harm salmon will have to greatly expand buffer zones around their fields so the chemicals don't reach streams, federal biologists ruled Tuesday.

Government plans to more than double the size of Petrified Forest National Park appear to be in jeopardy because Congress has failed to come up with the cash to buy surrounding properties it approved for expansion in 2004.

In the gloomy shade deep in Africa's rain forest, the noontime silence was pierced by the whine of a far-off chain saw. It was the sound of destruction, echoed from wood to wood, continent to continent, in the tropical belt that circles the globe.

It was supposed to be a ballet fit for a party boss: Winsome maids from the local collective farm prance around the stage carrying 5-foot long potatoes, while happy Soviet farmers celebrate yet another bountiful harvest.

When more than two dozen countries undertook in 1989 to fix the ozone hole over Antarctica, they began replacing chloroflourocarbons in refrigerators, air conditioners and hair spray. But they had little idea that using other gases that contain chlorine or fluorine instead also would contribute greatly to global warming.

"Only God can make a tree," poet Joyce Kilmer wrote. But it's people who plant them and save them. For Arbor Day inspiration, Deborah Gangloff of American Forests describes some of the national champion trees for USA TODAY.

The destruction of the Amazon rain forest has slowed dramatically this year, the government said, but environmentalists said it was too soon to celebrate and urged caution with the statistics. Preliminary data indicate that area of destruction sharply reduced.

U.S. cities are starting to value trees more by treating them less as decoration and more like public utilities now that calculations show how much money they save in the long run by cutting air pollution, storm runoff and energy costs.

The tree canopy of urban areas from the wooded Northwest to the lush Southeast has declined because of development, bad weather, tree disease and inadequate tree maintenance. But urban forest management is gaining influence in cities such as Roanoke, Va., where several groups are working to increase foliage.